Minister lauds UBD for excellence

BRUNEI-MUARA

THE Minister of Education yesterday lauded Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) for their drive in providing quality education, following the QS University Ranking 2015 report which places the institution as Asia’s top university for student mobility.

“This significant accomplishment is yet another international recognition of UBD’s unwavering and relentless efforts in providing quality education in realising the aspiration of Brunei Vision 2035,” said the minister.

UBD ranked number one for outbound student exchange and number two for inbound student exchange in Asia.

This was an improvement over their 2014 ranking where they ranked fourth for outbound and 11th for inbound.

Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Hj Awg Abu Bakar Hj Apong congratulated UBD’s Vice chancellor and all members of staff and students for being ranked 118th in the QS Asia University Ranking, and attaining the top position on outbound exchange, second on inbound exchange and sixth on international faculty.

UBD Assistant Vice Chancellor and Vice-president (Research and Innovation) David Koh, told The Brunei Times that he has seen many changes at the institute within a very short period of time.

“I think the leadership here is very dynamic and progressive,” he said on the sidelines of yesterday’s Ninth Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei Medical Sciences Conference.

Koh, who is also Chair Professor at the Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa’adatul Bolkiah (PAPRSB) Institute of Health Sciences, said there has been an exponential increase in the number of publications by UBD.

“This is a very good sign and we intend on maintaining this trajectory,” he said.

Koh, meanwhile, said UBD has become much more active in research in recent years thanks to good support for research funding, getting new research active staff and the changing infrastructure.

“We want to encourage collaboration with people from different universities from various countries, and that is another step in the right direction. We have several projects involving different countries, including ASEAN Economic Community to do projects,” he said.

Koh said as the varsity has just started research fairly recently in comparison with other countries, it can learn from others.

The vice president for research and innovation said they have to also focus on niche areas, such as biodiversity and oil and gas and energy related projects, among others.

“We cant do research on everything. We also need to focus on practical areas of research, and that is why we need to work with others such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources... so we can look at the problems which are directly relevant to Brunei where solutions may require a local context,” he said.

“Because Brunei is so small, there could be more collaboration with other universities between the ministries and agencies. That is happening and we need to work on that some more. Increasingly, we are finding that research cannot be done by one researcher alone. You need to have teams and this is where this transdisciplinary approach is important. That way, we solve real world problems,” he said.